plant stemless, 8 dm long. leaves about 12 in a broadly funnelform rosette, 3–4 dm long, obscurely lepidote, purple-spotted; sheath elliptic, 15 cm long; blade broadly acute or rounded and apiculate, 5 cm wide, flat. inflorescence: peduncle decurved, stout; peduncle bracts imbricate, the lower foliaceous, the upper lanceolate, acute; infiorescence densely cylindric, once-branched, 3–4 dm long, red except the petals; primary bracts erect, elliptic, ample, covering the lower spikes; spikes sessile, subelliptic, 4–6 cm long, complanate, 8–10-flowered; floral bracts densely imbricate, ovate, acute, 25 mm long, slightly exceeding the sepals, carinate, slightly incurved, coriaceous, even, glabrous. flowers: sepals lanceolate, acute, carinate, 22 mm long, half-connate adaxially; petals linear, acute, white, violet toward apex. stamens included.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.